Earth Island News

International Marine Mammal Project

Some progress at IWC

The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) again participated in
the annual International Whaling Commission (IWC), held June 16-19,
2003 in Berlin, Germany.

Nations opposing commercial whaling held a slim majority in voting
again this year. This year, whaling nations Japan and Norway were
joined by Iceland, whose membership in the IWC was approved by a
one-vote margin at an intersessional meeting in London last fall. The
whaling nations were also supported by a number of countries that
receive fisheries aid from Japan, ostensibly in exchange for their
pro-whaling votes at the IWC.

IMMP published ECO, the daily newsletter prepared by NGOs
outlining the conservation issues before the Commission. (For online
copies of this year's edition of ECO, visit www.earthisland.org/immp.) An article in ECO outlining Japan's purported vote-buying scheme led to a major
controversy within the IWC, resulting in a statement by the IWC asking ECO to cease publication. ECO continued publication, and was distributed outside the doors of the IWC meeting.

In a significant victory for environmentalists, the IWC majority
approved a new Conservation Committee, which was angrily opposed by
Japan, Iceland and Norway. For many years, the IWC has addressed
environmental issues such as protecting whales from habitat and
pollution problems, fishing nets, and whalewatching and other
disturbances. These "conservation issues" will now be grouped under the
purview of an ongoing IWC Conservation Committee that will provide
better coordination for whale research and conservation efforts outside
the IWC's historic role of regulating whaling.

For the last few years, IMMP and other environmental groups have urged
the IWC to include the issue of underwater noise on the Commission's
agenda. A number of incidents of whale and porpoise strandings around
the world have coincided with the use of loud military sonars. Both the
Scientific Committee of the IWC and the IWC itself are now routinely
including reviews of noise pollution issues on their agendas.

This year, the IWC passed further resolutions condemning scientific
whaling by Japan, that country's thinly veiled excuse to continue and
expand commercial whaling. A proposal by Iceland to begin a scientific
whaling scheme was also rejected by the IWC, but Iceland moved ahead
regardless.

Majority votes were also approved for establishing new whale
sanctuaries in the southern Pacific and southern Atlantic, championed
by Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil. But a three-quarters majority is
needed to establish new sanctuaries. Japan, Norway, Iceland, and their
bloc of nations were able to prevent a three-quarters majority vote.
Supporters of the sanctuaries propose to try again next year.

Overall, the environmental community was pleased with the progress made
at this year's IWC meeting, but Japan, Norway, and now Iceland continue
to flout international laws and public opposition by promoting various
commercial whaling operations. Both Japan and Norway are increasing the
number of whales they are killing annually.

Efforts by the Bush administration to exempt US Armed Forces from key
environmental laws, particularly the Marine Mammal Protection Act
(MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), continue in Congress. (See
"Congress passes conflicting military exemptions" in EIJ Autumn 2003.)

Pressure mounted in late August when the Natural Resources Defense
Council and other environmental organizations won a key victory in
federal court to restrict the use of experimental Low Frequency Active
(LFA) Sonar by the Navy. In her decision, Judge Elizabeth Laporte
expressed concerns about the effects of Navy sonars on whales and
dolphins, but stopped short of a ban on the use of LFA Sonar. Instead,
an agreement will be worked out between the Navy and the environmental
groups to protect key marine mammal habitats but allow the Navy more
flexibility in testing and training with LFA Sonar in the ocean.

The Navy, however, is complaining to Congress, trying to push
legislative exemptions that would prevent any restrictions from being
imposed on the use of LFA Sonar and similar intense sonars.

A Congressional conference committee, chaired by Senator John Warner
(R-VA), will be working out differences in the versions of the proposed
military exemptions passed by the House and the Senate. The House
version exempts the Navy from many provisions of the MMPA and prevents
the designation of "critical habitat" for endangered species on any
military lands via the ESA. The Senate version, by contrast, does not
weaken the MMPA at all and provides some protection to endangered
species habitat on military lands.

The case against intense sonars got stronger in May when whale watchers
in Puget Sound noticed a piercing sound suddenly flooding the ocean
around them - so loud that they could hear it on the surface. A nearby
pod of endangered orcas immediately fled the noise. Later, 13 harbor
porpoises were found dead in the vicinity, some with bleeding ears and
signs of other injuries associated with loud sonars. Offshore, the Navy
vessel Shoup was apparently in the area using a standard mid-range
sonar at very high levels.

Washington Governor Gary Locke has asked the Navy for an explanation of
the incident. Studies are still being conducted on the dead porpoises
to determine if sound trauma occurred.

Earth
Island and environmental activists around the world are mourning the
loss of Jane Tipson of St. Lucia. Jane was a regular activist at
meetings of the International Whaling Commission. In 1995, she
co-founded the Eastern Caribbean Coaliton for Environmental Awareness
(ECCEA) and was responsible for the regional program in St. Lucia in
the Caribbean. She also created the St. Lucia Whale and Dolphin
Watching Association and promoted the development of a now flourishing
whale-watching industry in that country. Jane's time and entire income
were devoted to the St. Lucia Animal Protection Society (SLAPS), an
organization she founded to alleviate the misery of wild and domestic
animals. In the early hours of September 16, Jane was fatally shot as
she drove across a bridge approaching her home in Monchy. We will miss
Jane's dedicated work for whales and other animals.

The International Veterinary Assistance (IVA, a US-based 501(c)3
nonprofit that recently worked with Jane in St. Lucia) is accepting
donations on behalf of St. Lucia Animal Protection Society (SLAPS).
Donations will be forwarded without any additional fees or deductions.
Please send your check payable to International Veterinary Assistance,
Inc., (indicating in the memo section of the check that this is a
donation for SLAPS), to Dr. Angela Witt, Director, International
Veterinary Assistance, Inc., 1928 DuBay Drive,Mosinee, WI 54455 USA